Work Under Way On Cnc Teahouse

Exacting Task Is A Matter Of Tradition, Skill

June 08, 1989|By SEAN SOMERVILLE Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — Beneath a blue tarpaulin in a wooded area across from Christopher Newport College's Campus Center Wednesday, five Japanese craftsmen worked to build the foundation that will support a Japanese teahouse.

In silence broken only by a barking dog in a neighboring garden, Ko Minamide mixed sand and cement into a muddy compound. Takeshi Kimura applied the mixture with a stick to a concrete base between wooden planks.

Working around bolts that will help to anchor the teahouse, Susumu Aburagi spent about 10 minutes with a trowel smoothing the compound on surfaces the size of a single square foot.

Watching over this orchestration was Toyoji Nishikawa, president of Marutomi Komuten Co. Ltd. - the Kyoto, Japan, company that will build the teahouse.

CNC's Board of Visitors voted to accept the teahouse as a gift from Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, in February after Gov. Gerald L. Baliles succeeded in his effort to get it moved from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., to Virginia.

Several local businessmen are trying to raise $600,000 to pay expenses to disassemble, transport and rebuild the tea house.

With the help of Etsuko Kiyota, a Japanese CNC student who served as an interpreter, Nishikawa said building the teahouse is a delicate task because it is a reproduction of a Kyoto teahouse that is one of the finest in Japan. "There are many teahouses in Japan," said Nishikawa, who thumbed through a scrapbook of photographs of the teahouse to show how it will be assembled. "But this style is the most difficult."

The five craftsmen currently working on the teahouse - and the seven more scheduled to come - will use few nails to support the structure.

Stones resting atop the foundation, hollowed to fit the teahouse's posts, will provide much of the support.

Many parts of the teahouse are carved to fit each other. Workers will also use wood dowels to attach some parts to each other.

The teahouse's original craftsmen will build the thatched roof. The cypress, oak and cedar will come from Japan. And workers will use sand to smooth the surface of the posts.

When it is finished in late July, the peak of the teahouse's roof will be 17 feet above the ground. The structure's length will be 19 feet. Its width will be 13 feet.

The workers said they would return to see their work after it is finished.

"I would like to see how people are using it in this place," said Nishikawa. "I would like to see if everyone is enjoying it."

"We're doing this job," Kimura said through the interpreter. "We would like to see how it's doing."